Here We Go...Again

By Mike Dill

Let me start by telling you a little story, well actually it will be two stories, but we can’t finish until we start so:Once upon a time there was a certified operator, who did not get enough credits for his recertification, well guess what happened. He did not get recertified; he got to take an exam. I won’t go into the details, just say not enough hours, no license. He had five years just didn’t pay attention, time goes by and end of renewal period and not enough hours. NYS DEC has rules, and the rules say so many hours by a certain date and that’s the way it is. The moral to this story is, if you like to take exams, let your certification expire without having enough hours and you will have to take the exam all over again. Remember that exam you studied for, crammed for, sweated over passing and said to yourself after you passed it, "I will never have to do this again." Well, DA, this is not a math problem, it’s simple, get your credits and you will not have to take the exam ever again.

Now to the second story, recently NYRWA did a training session that issued five hours of credit and in the morning I told the group about the operator who ended up losing his license and taking another exam. Also that morning, I told everyone that they (meaning you the individual) were responsible for obtaining and keeping track of training hours. Now if you are not sure who you are, go find a mirror, take out your drivers’ license and hold it up to the mirror. If the picture is close to the person that is looking back at you, then chances are that’s you. I will repeat, you not me, or the other guy, your boss, the secretary, but you, are responsible. Heavy-duty word, responsible, but this is one of those things we have to do. YOU find training, you attend training, and you keep track of the hours you need for recertifciation. If you noticed, I have underlined the word you many times, that’s because you are the one who has to pay attention to this situation. I/me take care of me not you, so guess who is responsible for you. If you have more than one answer, you are facing a dilemma. This is what I said many times that morning of the training session. So the end of the day comes, and I tell everyone that their training certificates are at the back of the room on the table and do not forget to take them home with you. Everyone gets up and rushes to the back of the room and out the door. Some remain to ask questions or talk with friends. After everyone is gone, I start to clean up the room. I return to the table at the back of the room and what do you think I see, six, count them, six certificates of individuals who had attended that days training. They are certified, they want to stay certified. I assume that was their reason for attending the session, so how could they not take their certificate. As you know, NYRWA is here to help, we supply the training, you have to attend. We supply the certificate; youhave to take it home. Let’s do our best to keep up with these important hours and avoid re-exam.